21st Birthday Care Package

These are the LAST care packages!!! AND, they also happen to be Birthday Care packages!!

I did 2 separate care packages.

Since my husband's 21st birthday is a few weeks away, the first is a (Root) Beer Pong box. I didn't want to send actual beer and get him in trouble. Although I have gotten a lot of advice on how to sneak alcohol into these boxes...

Root Beer, Ping Pong Balls and Solo cups (regular size and mini!)

Also included in this box is

A buttload of candy

 Silly String

 Birthday hats and party blowers

Balloons

I had ZERO idea how to decorate this box, so I just settled on something simple.

The second box is a little more fun!

Again I did the cake in a jar.

 This time I bought pre-colored cake mix.

I also included orange and green frosting

And of course, birthday candles!!!

 My batter all mixed and ready to pour

To bake the cake in the jars, put your mason jars in a brownie pan. Fill the pan with 1/4"-1/2" of water.

 Each mason jar ended up being filled with 1c of batter. You can do it in whatever pattern you want. Or just a solid color. You can do this with any cake flavor!

Bake them at 350 for ~40 minutes

 While you wait for the cakes to bake, put the lids in water and bring it to a boil. Not the screw part, just the lid part. Once it's been boiling for ~5 minutes, put the lid on top of the jar and screw the other part on. You will hear a "pop". Don't worry though, that's just the jar sealing!

Wrap them in bubble wrap and stick them in the box with the frosting seprate.

This box I did something special... I wrapped the inside of it!

The flat rate boxes come apart super easy. So, take it apart and lay it out flat.

 Roll your wrapping paper over the box, and cut it to size. You can then glue or tape the paper to the box.

Make sure to cut where the box is cut so you can fold the flaps.

Put the box back together with packing tape and voila!

Here's the box all packed! I added fun bows and confetti for even more fun. Make sure to put the bows on the flaps you fold down first! 

Most everything was bought at the dollar store. Everything except the mason jars (Which I had from the last cakes) cake mix and frosting. 

I can't believe these are the last care packages! I had so much fun putting them all together. I hope I have helped someone in some way! I will continue blogging probably until his homecoming. But this is the last blog post for care packages! Now the real countdown begins!

August SpouseBox review

August's SpouseBox arrived today!! I am much more pleased with this months than I am with last months! First off, it actually got here in a decent amount of time. Second, well, let me just show you...

August's theme was back to school, and these adorable paperclips fit in perfect.

Then there was also this necklace! Now I think I need a new outfit to go with it. 

You know how every box has the By Dawn Nicole print in them? Well, this box has 3 prints, and they're all Adult coloring pages!! Colored pencils included!

The big item this month was a free one year subscription to Thrive! A $60 value! My understanding of Thrive is that it's like Sam's Club or Costco meets Whole Foods.

Also included was a few samples of items from Thrive. 

Not so sure how most of this fits into the back to school themed, but over all it was a great box! I'm excited to see what next months holds!

Don't forget to get your subscription at thespousebox.com 

The beginning of the end

The homecoming preparations have begun!! It's about a month and a half away. How crazy is that?!

I only have one more care package to send!

Nothing says homecoming quite like a homecoming sign!! Build-A-Sign offers a FREE homecoming sign with the stipulation that you pay for shipping.

Visit http://www.buildasign.com/Troops to start designing your sign! You can get it in 2'x4' or 3'x6'.

Normal turn around time is 8 weeks, but they have expedited options as well! You just have to pay extra.

Finding Nemo (Deployment is Almost Over) Care Package

Now, since Finding Nemo is more than 10 years old, there isn't much Finding Nemo stuff out there anymore. I found a few fishy items, but some of it is just stuff I thought he'd like.

Here's the box all decorated!!

Goldfish! 

Swedish Fish

Goldfish Snack Container 

Pirate's Booty!

Finding Nemo gummies

Energy Drinks 

Lifesavers Gummies

Gatorade energy chews

Arizona water flavor packets

Only one box left before this deployment is OVER!!!!

July Spouse Box Review

This review is going to be a rough one. I am not a happy camper right now.

First off, lets start with the fact that it is July 20 and I am just now getting my July box. I was charged for my August box on the 15th. Most people got their box before July 10. But SpouseBox didn't send out the last batch until Friday, July 17. I should not have to pay for next months box until I've gotten this months!!! They should send out all boxes at once. Not over a 3 week period of time.

Now, I guess I understand why they sent out some so much later. They got a lot of crap about this months box. Apparently they sent some gourmet cookies that didn't ship well, and ended up not so gourmet. So, they decided to hold off shipping the last batch and substituting something else in. Understandable. However, it still took over 10 days for them to get my box out. And I don't think it's fair to everyone who already got the not-so-gourmet cookies that they didn't get a substitution.

Here's a brutally honest post made to their Facebook page. A lot of people seemed to have the same grievances. This is what caused them to redo the last batch. They have wonderful customer service. I will give them that!!

Now, not all reviews were bad!! SpouseBox sure does have loyal subscribers.  Probably because of their wonderful customer service and past boxes.

Another one of the reasons I'm disappointed in this months box. My box was MAILED on Friday. And here they are posting a review of what was in the box!! Completely ruined the surprise (well, not for me, I'd already read other peoples reviews). But for some people, like this lady, they were rightfully upset. They really should have known better here. You don't reveal what was in the box before all the boxes have shipped. 

Without further ado, here is what was in July's box.

This month's theme was Red, White and You

These coasters are so cute! They go great with the Fourth of July theme. The first batch of boxes only got one coaster, so I feel special to have gotten 2!

So I think I've decided that this is a sticky thing that you stick onto the back of your phone. It can then hold money, cards, IDs, etc. However, I do not trust these kinds of things. Imagine if it fell off. Anything that I would put in there is WAY too important to lose. So I'm going to stick to my wallet and purse.

This decal sticker seems super cute! Not sure where I'm going to put it though. The sticker is white. My laptop is white (and already has a decal on it). It's too big to go on a phone, and I don't think my husband would like it on our car. Again, it fits the theme nicely!

Another print. These prints are beautiful. I can tell so much effort and work is put into each months.

This month they included a frame though!!!

Still no idea where to put it.

And here is this month's cookie substitution. Awesome, another tote bag. (end sarcasm) I don't use my other one. I'm sure as hell not going to use a second one. I am incredibly disappointed that the item they used to substitute was an item they've already sent out in their boxes!! DON'T SEND THE SAME ITEM IN MULTIPLE MONTHS!!

I wasn't the only one disappointed. I would have rather had the stale cookies.

And everything together.

This month's theme had so much potential. I mean, most the subscribers are military spouses, military members themselves, or even Veterans. The them was supposed to be patriotic!! They could have done SO much with this theme!! This month was a big let down.

Here's to hoping August's is better. The theme has to do with back to school. It better not be school supplies. 

Super Hero Care Package

My husband has been begging me for a Super Hero themed box, so I finally gave in and put one together! Again, Walmart came through for me, and I was able to find all this wonderful stuff! Lots of cheap trinkets that will keep him and his buddies entertained, but it won't be the end of the world that he will likely throw most of it away before coming home. 

These Play Packs were $2 each. They have coloring books, stickers, random goodies in there. Then TMNT stickers and a SuperMan ribbon.

All sorts of glow-sticks. Spiderman, TMNT, Captain America.

TMNT gummies, Avenger gummies, Avenger Cheez-Its, TMNT pez, Thor pez, and Avenger lollipops. 

TMNT puzzle, Spiderman puzzle. Spiderman cards and Avenger cards.

LEGO Marvel DS game

Batman, Superman, and Avengers boxers

The box all put together! I hand drew all of this, and I am so proud of it!